Rime

This is part of our Road Trip 2018 summer series "Taking It to Extremes," which looks at what happens when people mix everyday tech with insane situations. Tom Padham didn't see the softball-size ice chunk before it hit him at 100 miles an hour. Bad enough that it left his back battered and sore. Adding insult to injury, it made him drop the 3-foot-tall bucket used to gather precipitation — which took off in the wind, fog and blowing snow like a hard-sided wind sock. He had to chase that bucket the length of a football field, around outcroppings of rock and hunkered-down structures on the summit of New Hampshire's Mount Washington. It's a risk you take when you're weather observer at an outpost with some of the worst weather on the planet, where winter conditions can strike almost any time of the year. The ice chunk incident happened in April. A puffy parka offered some padding, but not enough. "I had a bruise for about a week or so, a good … [Read more...] about Ice, wind and lightning: It’s tough being a weather watcher on Mount Washington

What just happened? Anti-tamper software maker Denuvo has shut down a well-known DRM cracking group. Voksi, the leader of the hacker group Revolt, announced on Reddit that his website was effectively taken down when Bulgarian authorities seized his server and personal PCs. “It finally happened, I can't say it wasn't expected, Denuvo filed a case against me to the authorities,” Voksi commented in CrackWatch, a subreddit devoted to cracking DRM-protected games. “Police came yesterday and took the server PC and my personal PC.” He said he tried contacting Denuvo to come to a “peaceful resolution,” but was told that Bulgarian prosecutors will decide his fate. While it seems that he is willing to defend himself, even calling out for a lawyer in the community to contact him, he does appear to be giving up on the cracking game. “Sadly, I won't be able to do what I did anymore,” he said. “Maybe someone else can continue my fight.” … [Read more...] about DRM maker Denuvo gets Bulgarian cracking group Revolt shutdown

E3 2018 has been full of obvious highs and subtle lows for the Nintendo Switch. On one hand we got a massive blowout for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate featuring every character ever in the series and then some. It looks incredible and we can’t wait to play. But besides that, things are looking a little light for the console/handheld hybrid until the one-two-three punch of Super Mario Party, Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee, and Smash hit in October, November, and December. Meanwhile, Fire Emblem Three Houses has slipped in 2019 while there’s still no firm details on the likes of Metroid Prime 4, Yoshi, and Bayonetta 3. But Smash Bros. hype is a hell of a thing. So we can’t blame you for letting it overpower everything else. While Smash isn’t coming until December, multiplayer games in general on Switch are in for a change when Nintendo launches the paid Nintendo Switch Online service in January. And we heard most of the details for that before E3 even … [Read more...] about Everything You Need to Know About the Nintendo Switch

For the first time since advocating for the prosecution of Harvey Weinstein, the Time’s Up collective has singled out an alleged abuser: R&B star Robert Kelly. Women of Color of Time’s Up, a subcommittee of the larger group specifically organizing around issues that affect women and girls of color, released a statement this morning announcing their support of #MuteRKelly, an online campaign asking Live Nation and Sony Music to cancel R. Kelly’s tour dates and drop his recording contract. Women of Color of Time’s Up, which includes Ava DuVernay, Shonda Rimes, and Jurnee Smollett-Bell, are also asking other “corporations and venues,” including Kelly’s record label RCA Records, to cut ties with the singer. Over the course of nearly two decades, Kelly has been accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct, statutory rape, aggravated assault, and harassment. Journalist Jim DeRogatis at the Chicago Sun-Times first broke the story in 2000 that … [Read more...] about Women of Color of Time’s Up asks the music industry to cut ties with R. Kelly

The Women of Color committee within Time’s Up has announced they’re joining the online #MuteRKelly campaign. #MuteRKelly was started by Oronike Odeleye and Kenyette Barnes last year in response to decades of sexual assault allegations facing the musician, accusations of abuse that have done little to hinder his career or ongoing record deal with RCA Records. The campaign asked Sony to drop Kelly and for Live Nation to cancel his upcoming performances via an online petition. The letter from Time’s Up WOC asks RCA Records, Ticketmaster, Spotify and Apple Music, and the Greensboro Coliseum Complex (which is hosting an R. Kelly concert in May) to join the #MuteRKelly movement as well, Billboard reports. Time’s Up WOC, which was described by Tessa Thompson back in March as a Time’s Up subgroup, reportedly includes Ava DuVernay, Shonda Rimes, and Jurnee Smollett-Bell. “The recent court decision against Bill Cosby is one step towards addressing these … [Read more...] about Time’s Up Women of Color Join #MuteRKelly